Department of things could be worse
The recent discussion of the public defender issue in Monroe County got me thinking about a series (part 1; part 2; part 3) of articles the New York Times ran about the New York State judicial system about 18 months ago.  I remembered it being bad, but I was stunned by some of the things in the article. For example, speaking of right to counsel:
In 11 years as justice in Dannemora, in the North Country, Thomas R. Buckley had his own special treatment for defendants without much money: Even if they were found not guilty, he ordered them to perform community service work to pay for their court-appointed lawyers, although defense lawyers and the district attorney had reminded him for years that the law guaranteed a lawyer at no cost.
“The only unconstitutional part,†he told the commission before it removed him in 2000, “is for these freeloaders to expect a free ride.â€
He twice jailed David Velie, a 19-year-old charged with a misdemeanor, even though the law required him to set bail. In an interview, Mr. Buckley explained that the young man had been a troublemaker “ever since he was born.â€
Like many small-town justices, he said many of his decisions were down-to-earth solutions. “You’ve got to use your own judgment,†he said. “That’s why they call us judges. The law is not always right.â€
The article is long but here’s a quick summary:
Some of the courtrooms are not even courtrooms: tiny offices or basement rooms without a judge’s bench or jury box. Sometimes the public is not admitted, witnesses are not sworn to tell the truth, and there is no word-for-word record of the proceedings.
Nearly three-quarters of the judges are not lawyers, and many — truck drivers, sewer workers or laborers — have scant grasp of the most basic legal principles. Some never got through high school, and at least one went no further than grade school.
[...]
Officially a part of the state court system, yet financed by the towns and villages, the justice courts are essentially unsupervised by either. State court officials know little about the justices, and cannot reliably say how many cases they handle or how many are appealed. Even the agency charged with disciplining them, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, is not equipped to fully police their vast numbers
[...]
New York is one of about 30 states that still rely on these kinds of local judges, descendants of the justices who kept the peace in Colonial days, when lawyers were scarce. Many states, alarmed by mistakes and abuse, have moved in recent decades to rein in their authority or require more training. Some, from Delaware to California, have overhauled the courts, scrapped them entirely or required that local judges be lawyers.
But New York has no such requirement. It demands more schooling for licensed manicurists and hair stylists.
And it has left its justices with the same powers — more than in many states — even though governors, blue-ribbon commissions and others have been denouncing the courts as outdated and unjust since as far back as 1908, when a justice in Westchester County set up a roadside speed trap, fining drivers for whatever cash they were carrying.
This is an important state issue and one we’d like to return to at a later date.
Related posts:
This in America? I’m stunned, just stunned. Thanks for posting this.
There was a report by a commission set up by the New York Court of Appeals that followed that (or maybe preceded it) about the quality of defense services for the indigent in New York. These two issues go hand in hand - without competent defense counsel, there’s nobody to stop these justices (or even higher level judges). That’s one of the reasons why how a Public Defender is selected matters.
This is not the cut-and-dried issue it appears, I think. We have a lay judge in my village who does a terrific job — diligent, responsible, careful — who defeated a sitting justice who was a lawyer, a lawyer who was lazy, arrogant, and rude, really just terrible at the job. The Village police were in near rebellion over him. I know that is simply an anecdote, but there isn’t anything absolute about a law degree that will make someone a good justice. The other thing to remember is that in one-party areas like mine, it is quite often the case that all lawyers belong to the party in power for professional reasons. (They just don’t feel they can make a living if they’re not Republicans.) Literally, there are only 4 lawyers in my entire county who are registered Democrats. If only lawyers are allowed to serve as local justices, there is no way for us to contest whomever the Republicans put up. May I remind readers that in 2005 Livingston County Republicans decided our county judge should be a man who had a domestic violence offense with a gun. Thank goodness, we were able to convert a Republican lawyer to our team and defeat him, but that usually isn’t going to happen at the village and town level. We HAVE to be able to run lay justice candidates, or we are totally at the mercy of whomever the local machine decides to put up.